Training Needs Analysis Template: A Practical UK Guide
A practical training needs analysis template for UK businesses. Covers the three-level TNA framework, how to identify gaps, and how to feed results into a compliant training plan.
A training needs analysis is how you find the gap between what your employees can currently do and what they need to be able to do. Without it, your training plan is a guess. With it, every training item on the plan has a specific justification — which is exactly what a regulator, an auditor, or an employment tribunal wants to see.
For UK employers, a training needs analysis is not a management theory exercise. It is the mechanism that connects your legal obligation to train employees with the practical question of what training each employee actually needs.
This guide explains the three-level TNA framework — an approach widely used in UK organisations and aligned with the CIPD's guidance on identifying learning and development needs — provides a template structure, and shows how the outputs feed into a compliant training plan.
Why the legal basis matters
The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, Section 2(2)(c) requires employers to provide training "as is necessary" to ensure employee health and safety. The phrase "as is necessary" requires you to have identified what is necessary — and a training needs analysis is how you do that.
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, Regulation 13 goes further: it requires training when employees are recruited, when they change roles, and when risks change. Each of these trigger points requires identifying what training the employee needs — which is, at its simplest, a training needs analysis.
In care settings, the CQC's Fundamental Standards (Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, Regulation 18) require that staff are "suitably qualified, competent, skilled and experienced." Demonstrating suitability requires evidence that training requirements were systematically identified and met. See the full CQC mandatory training list for care homes for the baseline requirements in that sector.
The three-level TNA framework
A training needs analysis operates at three levels. Running all three avoids the two most common failure modes: missing a statutory requirement (found at the organisational level) and providing the wrong training for a specific employee's actual gaps (found at the individual level).
Level 1: Organisational analysis
This level asks: what training does our organisation need to comply with legal requirements and operate effectively?
At this level you are identifying:
- Statutory training requirements — what the law requires for each role or activity. Manual handling, fire safety, working at height, food hygiene, first aid — these are determined by the specific legislation applicable to your sector and activities.
- Sector-specific requirements — what your regulator expects. For care homes, that means CQC standards. For construction, that means HSE guidance and CSCS requirements. For food businesses, that means Food Standards Agency requirements.
- Organisational policy requirements — what your own policies mandate. GDPR training, induction programmes, lone working procedures.
The output at this level is a baseline: the minimum training every employee in a given role must have, regardless of individual skill level. This feeds directly into the statutory and mandatory columns of a training plan template.
Level 2: Role/team analysis
This level asks: what training does this specific role or team need to perform its function competently?
At this level you are comparing the competence requirements of the role against the training needed to meet them. The HSE defines competence as "the combination of training, skills, experience and knowledge that a person has and their ability to apply them to perform a task safely." A role analysis identifies what training contributes to each element of that combination.
This is also where a skills matrix or competency matrix is most useful. By mapping the skills required for the role against the skills currently held by the team, you identify both individual and team-wide gaps.
Outputs at this level include role-specific training requirements that go beyond the statutory baseline — technical skills, equipment operation, supervisory responsibilities, customer-facing competencies.
Level 3: Individual analysis
This level asks: given this specific employee's current knowledge, skills, and experience, what training do they need?
Individual analysis is typically conducted through:
- Appraisal or performance review discussions
- Direct observation of work performance
- Competency assessment results
- Self-assessment by the employee
- Feedback from customers or colleagues
The output at this level is a personalised training need — the specific gap for this individual, in this role, at this time. This feeds into Section D of a training plan (role-specific and development training).
Without individual-level analysis, training plans tend to send everyone on the same courses regardless of their starting point. This is not only inefficient — it also misses the principle in Regulation 13(3) of MHSWR that training should reflect new or changed risks rather than applying the same content regardless of what each employee already knows or what their specific work hazards are.
The TNA template
Use this template to structure your analysis at each level. It is designed to be completed once for the organisation-level and once per role-type at the role level, then adapted for individual employees at the individual level.
TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS — [Organisation / Department / Role]
Analysis date: [Date]
Conducted by: [Name and role]
Next review date: [Date — recommend annually or when roles or regulations change]
Part A: Organisational baseline
| Training requirement | Legal basis or policy source | Applies to | Frequency / renewal | Current status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fire safety awareness | RRO (Fire Safety) Order 2005 | All staff | Annual | In place / Gap |
| Manual handling | Manual Handling Ops Regs 1992 | All physical roles | 2-3 years | In place / Gap |
| Data protection | UK GDPR / DPA 2018 | All staff | 2 years | In place / Gap |
| [Sector-specific requirements] | [Regulation name and reference] | [Role] | [Frequency] | |
| [Add rows as required] |
Part B: Role-specific requirements
Role being analysed: [Job title]
| Competency area | Skills / knowledge required | Current team level (1-4) | Required level (1-4) | Gap | Training to address gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [e.g. Equipment operation] | [Specific skills list] | ||||
| [e.g. Customer communication] | [Specific skills list] | ||||
| [e.g. Regulatory knowledge] | [Specific legislation/standards] |
For guidance on how to define and score competency levels, see our skills matrix levels guide.
Part C: Individual analysis
Employee: [Name]
Role: [Job title]
Analysis method: [Appraisal / observation / assessment / self-assessment]
| Competency / training area | Required level | Current level | Gap | Recommended training | Priority | Target date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High / Med / Low |
Summary of training needs identified:
[Narrative summary — what are the most significant gaps and why?]
Employee acknowledgement: [Signature] [Date]
Manager sign-off: [Signature] [Date]
How to use TNA outputs in your training plan
A completed TNA is the justification behind each line in your training plan. When an inspector asks "why does this employee have this training on their plan?", the TNA is the answer.
The outputs feed into your training plan as follows:
- Part A (organisational baseline) → statutory and mandatory sections of the training plan
- Part B (role requirements) → role-specific section of the training plan
- Part C (individual analysis) → development training section for the specific employee
If you have not yet structured your training plan, the training plan template guide covers the six elements that make a plan defensible under inspection.
How often to run a TNA
A TNA is not a one-off exercise. The following events should trigger a new analysis or update to an existing one:
On recruitment: every new employee needs an individual-level analysis to identify what training they need before starting work independently. This is required by Regulation 13 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
On role change: a change in responsibilities, a promotion, or a transfer to a different site all change the training requirement. The role-level analysis for the new role should be completed before the employee takes on new responsibilities.
When regulations change: if the legal requirements for your sector change — new mandatory training, updated standards, new CQC requirements — the organisational baseline needs to be updated, and any gaps against the new requirements identified.
After an incident or near-miss: incidents often reveal training gaps that a TNA would have caught. After any significant incident, re-run the analysis for the role involved and check whether the gap is organisation-wide.
Annually: a standard annual review of the TNA ensures that changing job descriptions, new equipment, or evolved working practices have not created training gaps that are not on anyone's plan.
The connection to your training matrix
A TNA identifies what training is needed. A training tracker records what training has been delivered and is current. The training matrix is how both documents connect in practice: it shows, for each employee, whether the training identified by the TNA has been completed, is in progress, or is outstanding.
Run the TNA, populate the training plan, deliver the training, and update the matrix. That four-step cycle is the core of a systematic training compliance process.
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